So what does it take for you to make your home more connected and intelligent? ‘Intelligence’ in this case refers to having a machine in your house that can switch certain devices on or off based on the inputs of sensors placed around the house. ‘Connected’ refers to having a wide range of sensors and outputs all linked together via the internet. ...

MyOctopus is delighted to be listed as one of the '10 promising startups' in EU-Startups list '50 of Europe’s hottest IoT startups'.

During the last few weeks, we took a close look at about 150 European companies that are working on innovations in the Internet of Things space – including IoT platforms and smart devices.

During our sourcing and review process we exclusively focused on startups which were founded between 2014 and 2016. In order to source the initial list of roughly 150 European IoT startups, we used platforms like Funderbeam, Dealroom, AngelList, Linkedin, Crunchbase (and several more), but we also spoke with a number of industry experts to ensure that we’re finding the best startups possible.

The next step was to create a ranking on the basis of this extensive list of IoT startups. For each company we tracked the employee count (according to LinkedIn or the company website), their social media followings, website traffic, and the degree of innovation. Afterwards we gave each of these data points a specific weighting, which resulted in a concrete score for all of the listed startups. The result is a ranking with 50 of Europe’s hottest IoT startups

Below you’ll find a little appetizer in the form of 10 promising startups which are also included in our ranking report. We’re listing the companies below in no particular order. If you want to see the concrete ranking with all 50 startups, make sure to download our report.

When was MyOctopus founded? Do you have any co-founders? How did you get the idea?

MyOctopus was founded in April 2015, by my co-founders Larry (Wawrzyniec) Wawro and Sylwester Hyzynski during a hill walk in the Dublin Mountains. Our CEO Larry had an idea about a ‘human’ home, one that responds and learns with you. He wanted to build something that could manage and extend the abilities of smart devices in the home– Emma Dowling CMO & Co-Founder

What does MyOctopus do?

MyOctopus is creating a complete solution to manage the home ‘Intranet of Things’ – a open source platform and device that will do everything for your smarthome – it will make your home truly smart, connected and responsive, without compromising your data or privacy.

Irish startup tv is here to help you share your StartUp story

IrishStartUpTV was created as a platform to enable StartUps to share their 'starting up' stories in the interest of highlighting what have achieved to date, and in the hope of encouraging others, who now have the opportunity to learn from their experience.

IrishStartUpTV was inspired by some of the most amazing StartUp peoplewho are re-thinking business, science and technology to help shape anew and enhanced global community.

MyOctopus Smart Home Maker Open Source Components

The freedom to innovate your own home

The power to create the Smart-Home of your Dreams

The Startup Shed is here to give a voice to all the early stage Startups out there. Every business has a cool, interesting story when they're at the humble beginnings. We're here to help you tell that story and make people aware of who you are and what your company represents. Lets go!

The intricate world of PCB electronics and machine code seems to be worlds apart from the ancient mist and legend steeped granite mountains of Wicklow, Ireland. The legendary Irish hero Fionn MacCumhail is said to have hunted on these slopes (more about him below). Yes, it is far from the ocean, and further still from the high tech world of a hardware startup and the Sci-Fi realm of AI managed smart-homes. Nonetheless, this is where MyOctopus was born, during a hill-walk between two old friends Larry and Sylwi, in April 2015.

2015 is the year MyOctopus was founded and the year our idea became very very real. But this is a story about belief, not about MyOctopus. You can find out all about MyOctopus here www.myoctopus.io and on Twitter.

How are belief, vision, startup ecosystems and the wild Wicklow mountains of legendary Fionn MacCumhaill fame connected? Bear with this archaeologist turned digital anthropologist, and I will explain all…

Entrepreneurs are ordinary people, but entrepreneurs also have some interesting traits — both team-players and independent thinkers, creative and strategic thinkers, outsiders and insiders, people with strong self belief and the right amount of doubt to remain ever flexible and questioning. Entrepreneurs have strong belief — in themselves, in their ideas, in people, in the world. Entrepreneurs are badasses, and badasses are wild.

Startup thinking involves life paths that are sometimes ‘in the wilderness’, far from the normal well rutted tracks of everyday human thought. To stay in the innovative, productive entrepreneurial mindset, you need to keep part of your thought ‘in the wild’, out there where the horizon is open and the air is quiet. Great ideas get born here, and also get nourished and renewed where the view is bigger. Vision creates belief.

When you have a vision, and belief in it, you glow. Yes, seriously, you do.

When you talk about your idea with people, they are magnetized, they are interested, they ask questions, they want to know more. Belief rubs off. The belief of our original founders Sylwi & Larry called me into the vast oceans of MyOctopus. It has drawn in many others; we now have code contributors, supporters, 700+ twitter followers, and a cohesive brand. All this in a few months! So go for a walk somewhere wild and natural, and mull over your idea. Inspiration can come from the most unlikely places. Inspiration feeds belief.

You need belief. There will challenges, obstacles, maybe even mountains in your way.

Obstacles are interesting — you have this idea, you believe in it, and you want to share it with the world; if it is solving your problem, it will obviously solve it for others too, hey? And maybe it will make you a bit of money along the way too. But, it seems that many people are already building on your idea, or that the market is not interested, or that what you want to make is too expensive, or you have become snowed under, you have become caught in The Struggle.

There are a few steps in-between the idea and the game-changing startup becoming successful. Take companies like AirBnB, Uber, Slack, or Trello. They faced obstacles, they had times where they felt dead in the water. What makes them successful however, isn’t just a good idea and a gap in the market — it is also how they viewed obstacles — in the case of AirBnB, they hired professional photographers to show their customers off better to other customers.

Sometimes you need to re-frame your ideas, look at them from a different angle. You need to find your wilderness, your idea space, your place where you can be in that particular innovative, wide thinking, world changing perspective that originally gave birth to your idea.

With belief, and your wilderness as a font of inspiration, you will innovate your way around seeming obstacles, or incorporate them, or simply relax and enjoy the scenery, allow the detour to inspire you and open up your thinking. You can go with this rhythm, allow events to show you another view. Once you have begun that walk, you will continue, no matter what; even if there is a boulder in your path, you have to get back to you car / bus-stop / cup of tea or latte ;) Always remember

“Where there is a will, there is a way.”

Sometimes, you need to go back into that wilderness, back up that mountain trail, to get some perspective, see the overview again, get back to where that idea began, or maybe just to watch the clouds move across the sky and listen to the great outdoors.

Attracting people into your startup with belief and a strong but flexible vision will also help to inspire you — the people you have drawn in may start to annoy you with questions, and ideas that are different to your vision (I’m sure I was probably very annoying last August and September!). RELAX. This is all part of the process. They have been enchanted by your belief, they are not trying to undermine it. They will help you to strengthen your vision, or will help you to refine it, pare it down, or to open it up. The enthusiasm of new team members can also pick you up when you are having one of those days.

Again, Belief is infectious. It has now created your team around you. You have taken your idea out into the world, the path has opened up before you, New avenues have opened up just when you thought it had all dried up.

So to keep your belief strong and vibrant, find your wilderness, and make it part of your life. Startups are not a day job, being involved will change your life and your lifestyle; it will change you as you plan and work to change the world. For us, 2016 will be the year that MyOctopus swims out in the ever expanding IoT and Machine Learning / Data ocean, the year we create a vibrant and innovative community and a responsive, self learning smart-home platform, unique to each home and user. Many uncharted paths and ocean currents lie before us, but we believe that we can do it. And so can you — just believe in yourself, and find your wilderness.